BingAds has a “Backup Payment Method” that is supposed to be exactly what it sounds like… a credit card or payment method that will be used/charged in the event that your primary payment method doesn’t work for whatever reason. So when my primary funding source was not working I figured I was covered…. why wouldn’t I be? I prepared my account with a trusty backup payment method!

Screenshot from BingAds showing how the “backup payment method” is supposed to work.

Your backup payment method will not be automatically charged…and your ads and campaigns will go off-line if you do not sign in to your account and manually change your backup payment method to your primary payment method! Sounds crazy doesn’t it? I called in to ask two different support agents and they both confirmed that you will need to manually intervene for your backup payment method to be used.

I’m guessing this issue is costing Microsoft hundreds of thousands of dollars per day in lost revenue and frustrating it’s customers.

I called Google AdWords to see how their backup payment method system works…. they said that their system does auto-charge the backup without manual intervention.